“My grandfather was NOT a monkey!”

You know it’s going to be a long day over here at the State Board of Education hearing on new science curriculum standards after a woman interrupted a news conference of scientists by shouting: “My grandfather was not a monkey.”

More than 100 people are signed up to speak about the new standards. Most of the attention focuses on whether public schools should continue to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution and other scientific theories.

Most scientists contend there are no “weaknesses” in evolution theory. But there is plenty of passion on the other side in an effort to convince the board to keep the “strengths and weaknesses” standard. The board will take a preliminary vote tomorrow and final action on Friday.

As far as that monkey, Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Institute and a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, answered her a few minutes later.

“He wasn’t,” he said. “We want the children of this country to understand that evolution doesn’t apply to ‘your grandfather was a monkey.’

“One of the reasons why so many people are against evolution is that they don’t understand it,” Krauss said. “We want our children to be presented with the science. We don’t want our children to be as ignorant as the woman.”

Several minutes after the woman’s outburst, some guy interrupted the scientists by shouting: “Fear God, not man.”

Board chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, has warned people to keep quiet during the hearing. A law enforcement officer is standing in the doorway to keep order.